Vithimiris was a king of the

Greuthungi The Greuthungi (also spelled Greutungi) were a Gothic people who lived on the Pontic steppe between the Dniester and Don rivers in what is now Ukraine, in the 3rd and the 4th centuries. They had close contacts with the Tervingi, another Gothic pe ...

, ruling for some unspecified time in the area of present-day southern Ukraine. He succeeded to

Ermanaric Ermanaric; la, Ermanaricus or ''Hermanaricus''; ang, Eormanrīc ; on, Jǫrmunrekkr , gmh, Ermenrîch (died 376) was a Greuthungian Gothic king who before the Hunnic invasion evidently ruled a sizable portion of Oium, the part of Scythia ...

, meaning that he probably reigned in 376.

Ammianus Marcellinus Ammianus Marcellinus (occasionally Anglicisation, anglicised as Ammian) (born , died 400) was a Roman soldier and historian who wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from Ancient history, antiquity (preceding Procopius). His w ...

, the only known source on him, states that after Ermanaric's death he tried to resist the

Alani The Alans (Latin: ''Alani'') were an ancient and medieval Iranian peoples, Iranian Eurasian nomads, nomadic pastoral people of the North Caucasus – generally regarded as part of the Sarmatians, and possibly related to the Massagetae. Modern ...

, who were allied with the

Huns The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th century AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was part ...

, with the help of other Huns hired as mercenaries. He did so "for some time" (), but eventually, "after many defeats" (), he died in battle. It is then assumed that he most probably ruled in 376, possibly also in 375. According to

Herwig Wolfram Herwig Wolfram (born 14 February 1934) is an Austrian historian who is Professor Emeritus of Medieval History and Auxiliary Sciences of History at the University of Vienna and the former Director of the . He is a leading member of the Vienna Scho ...

, Vithimiris was "certainly not" the son of Ermanaric. His son Viderichus was too young at that time to rule, so the actual reign was in the hands of

Alatheus Alatheus and Saphrax were Greuthungi chieftains who served as co-regents for Vithericus, son and heir of the Gothic king Vithimiris. Alatheus Alatheus ( 376–387) was a chieftain of the Greuthungi. He fought during the Hunnish invasion of 376, en ...

and Saphrax, his subordinate commanders, as Michael Kulikowski labels them. There is also a parallel story of these events, told by

Jordanes Jordanes (), also written as Jordanis or Jornandes, was a 6th-century Eastern Roman bureaucrat widely believed to be of Goths, Gothic descent who became a historian later in life. Late in life he wrote two works, one on Roman history (''Romana ...

, the only other author to mention Ermanaric. However, Jordanes does not know Vithimiris; he narrates that after Ermanaric's death, a relative of his,

Vinitharius Vinitharius (Vinithar) was possibly a king of the Greuthungian GothsTerpilovsky, R. Vinithar (ВІНІТАР)'. Encyclopedia of History of Ukraine. 2003 around 375-376 AD. Vinitharius is mentioned by Gothic historian Jordanes in Getica. According ...

by name, accepted the reign. He ruled barely for a year () and then he had to face the Huns in battle. The Hunnic king

Balamber Balamber (also known as Balamir, Balamur and many other variants) was ostensibly a chieftain of the Huns, mentioned by Jordanes in his ''Getica'' ( 550 AD). Jordanes simply called him "king of the Huns" () and writes the story of Balamber crushin ...

waged a long war on Vinitharius () and only in the third battle, he managed to kill him. However, there are doubts about the very existence of Balamber or any other Hunnic king at that time.

References

External links

The book 31 of Ammianus Marcellinus
(in Latin)

(in English)

(in Latin)

(in English) {{s-end Gothic warriors Gothic kings 4th-century monarchs in Europe 4th-century Gothic people